Energy demand for certain types of facilities may require a continuous, or near continuous, uninterrupted energy supply with a high level of reliability that the required amount of energy will be available as needed. Some types of facilities may meet their energy reliability requirements by providing a primary energy source, such as a coal or natural gas-fired power plant, together with a backup source of energy, such as a diesel generator and/or batteries. However, there is rapidly increasing concern regarding the environmental impacts of coal and natural gas emissions, which may significantly curtail or preclude their use for power production in the future. Additionally, the backup sources of energy may have a limited energy supply that is intended to operate for a finite time period and/or only provide sufficient power for limited services. A loss of off-site power that exceeds the relatively short time period may result in an interruption of the energy supply that the facility is reliant upon for continued operation.
Known nuclear power plants may also be designed with one or more backup sources of energy that may be used to provide power in the event of a loss of off-site power. Additionally, many nuclear power plants are being designed to perform a non-safety trip in the event of a loss of power, such that the reactor may be shut down and cooled using passive techniques such as gravity, natural circulation and other laws of physics. Nevertheless, the non-safety trip of a nuclear reactor may require a significant number of reactor and/or plant safety functions to perform as expected while the reactor shuts down. Although remote in probability, reactor designs may need to take into account the various scenarios in which one or more of the safety functions may not perform as expected, thereby potentially increasing the cost and complexity of the reactor design.
This application addresses these and other problems.